[color=rgb(0,0,0);][font="arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"]On the whole 'Vika/Fowadi subject, we could go with Silvan's original plan, with Gunner deviating due to the fact that he wasn't actually present when things were decided.[/color][/font]

[color=rgb(0,0,0);][font="arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"]And then Lohkar comes up and smacks some sense into him.[/color][/font]

[font="'courier new', courier, monospace;"][color=#8b4513;]This is my unofficial last post of the season, unless any of the people I pointed out in the post want to interact. I'm also quite proud of it, as, compared to my earlier material in this RPG, it's certainly an improvement on my general writing style, in my mind. Hopefully it's a good read [/color][/font]

A little break away from my week long hiatus. Still not totally back yet, but I had access to the forum for a bit and decided to get started on this. I had written the first draft for this almost 6 months ago now and I figured I'd go ahead and start on making it.I present to you the Origin of a Sin. The Utu Kotore story. I'd love to hear what you guys think. I realize I don't ask for feedback enough. This will be a bit of a ride, but I'll be trying out a couple new things here and would love to hear your guys take on it.

After I missed so much RPing over the last few months, I took a good look through the profile topic to check what (if anything) had changed. I got to thinking, how many PCs are there in here (lots ) and who are they? Anyway, I counted them all up in types, looked at the numbers, and thought the results might be worth sharing.

Just as a clarifying note, I ddi not count profiles that were clearly made without even a cursory look at the game and rules. Characters like Glatorain, dual-element toa, somehow-sentient bohrok etc. I did count dead/disregarded characters. I did not count NPCs, dead or otherwise.

In total, there were 1,082 PCs.

By species:

Toa 663 61.28%

Matoran 234 21.63%

Vortixx 69 6.38%

Skakdi 65 6.01%

Turaga 8 0.74%

Custom 49 4.53%

Total 1082

Toa by element:

Fire 102 15.38%

Lightning 64 9.65%

Iron 63 9.50%

Air 54 8.14%

Ice 52 7.84%

Sonics 41 6.18%

Stone 40 6.03%

Magnetism 37 5.58%

Plantlife 36 5.43%

Water 36 5.43%

Plasma 34 5.13%

Gravity 32 4.83%

Earth 31 4.68%

Crystal 22 3.32%

Custom/None 18 2.71%

Shadow 1 0.15%

Matoran by element:

Water 57 24.36%

Fire 37 15.81%

Air 33 14.10%

Ice 24 10.26%

Earth 23 9.83%

Stone 16 6.84%

Iron 13 5.56%

Plasma 10 4.27%

Sonics 7 2.99%

Lightning 6 2.56%

Gravity 5 2.14%

Plantlife 2 0.85%

Crystal 1 0.43%

Magnetism 0 0.00%

Custom/None 0 0.00%

It should be noted here that 30 Jaliax sisters skewed this one a bit.

Skakdi by element:

Gravity 10 15.38%

Fire 7 10.77%

Plasma 7 10.77%

Ice 6 9.23%

Earth 5 7.69%

Stone 5 7.69%

Iron 5 7.69%

Lightning 4 6.15%

Plantlife 4 6.15%

Water 2 3.08%

Air 2 3.08%

Sonics 2 3.08%

Crystal 2 3.08%

Magnetism 2 3.08%

Custom/None 2 3.08%

So yeah, consider it a Mata Nui census of sorts. I'm not sure that anyone else will be interested at all, but here it is.

That's both funny and partially to be expected - naturally people would rather play Toa since you can be cool (not that Matoran can't be useful, just look at what Ahkmou got up to in the canon). The breakdown of the Toa and Matoran by elements was interesting, though. Looks like a Matoran of Magnetism should crop up soon.

I've wanted a census for a very long time, and the fact that you did it single-handed...is very, very impressive. I think those statistics should be very interesting to every player in the RPG, and they're certainly very revealing. I think we could all guess that there are more Toa of Fire than any other element, but the numbers are fascinating to look at.

Excellent work! How did you do it, with a spreadsheet or database? If so, do you still have it?

That's both funny and partially to be expected - naturally people would rather play Toa since you can be cool (not that Matoran can't be useful, just look at what Ahkmou got up to in the canon). The breakdown of the Toa and Matoran by elements was interesting, though. Looks like a Matoran of Magnetism should crop up soon.

Yeah, I expected there to be a lot of toa around, but I dithered on whether or not they would outnumber everyone else combined (they did).

Fire being a popular element was to be expected, since a lot of important beings in canon use it, and its characteristics are well known. Lightning, though, surprised me. Maybe people who like to stick with the canon gender-element specificity prefer it to water? Iron shouldn't surprise anyone by being in the top 3 for toa - its so useful for so many things.

Whoever makes the first magnetic Matoran gets a cookie.

Lorax, you genius!

I've wanted a census for a very long time, and the fact that you did it single-handed...is very, very impressive.

Also, all in one day.

I think those statistics should be very interesting to every player in the RPG, and they're certainly very revealing. I think we could all guess that there are more Toa of Fire than any other element, but the numbers are fascinating to look at.

Excellent work! How did you do it, with a spreadsheet or database? If so, do you still have it?

If it helps, Hubert, there were 2 turaga each of iron and lightning, and the others were sonics, fire, gravity and no element. I ddin't bother putting those ones into a table because there were so few.

EDIT: Full time score of Chiefs 37, Sharks 29. Hubert is happy, Lorax is happy. Comiserations to any South Africans on the forum.

Lorax, well done. I wouldn't have the patience for that. Wasn't surprised to see some of the results, like that much Toa.

That's both funny and partially to be expected - naturally people would rather play Toa since you can be cool (not that Matoran can't be useful, just look at what Ahkmou got up to in the canon). The breakdown of the Toa and Matoran by elements was interesting, though. Looks like a Matoran of Magnetism should crop up soon.

That's why I picked a Matoran as my second character, to prevent flooding the profile pages with Toa. But still, I agree with you, I looks down the profiles and see a bunh of Toa, which is quite a lot.

Indeed. Turaga should well be needed considering the whole assassination thing. You would think the Matoran would be clambering over anyone they find for guidance. But based on the amount of Toa PCs it's probably no wonder the shoes haven't been filled.

I find it interesting that crystal seems to be fairly present, despite it being non-cannon. Is it because people like shiny things?

That's both funny and partially to be expected - naturally people would rather play Toa since you can be cool (not that Matoran can't be useful, just look at what Ahkmou got up to in the canon). The breakdown of the Toa and Matoran by elements was interesting, though. Looks like a Matoran of Magnetism should crop up soon.

Yeah, I expected there to be a lot of toa around, but I dithered on whether or not they would outnumber everyone else combined (they did).

Fire being a popular element was to be expected, since a lot of important beings in canon use it, and its characteristics are well known. Lightning, though, surprised me. Maybe people who like to stick with the canon gender-element specificity prefer it to water? Iron shouldn't surprise anyone by being in the top 3 for toa - its so useful for so many things.

Lightening has considerably more of a butt-kicking image than water does.

[...]Fire being a popular element was to be expected, since a lot of important beings in canon use it, and its characteristics are well known. Lightning, though, surprised me. Maybe people who like to stick with the canon gender-element specificity prefer it to water? Iron shouldn't surprise anyone by being in the top 3 for toa - its so useful for so many things.

Personally, the reason I picked Lightning as an element for one of my characters is because it's flashy and clearly powerful. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the aforementioned

'Wow' factor of the element is the reason people apply it. Lightning bolts are, pun intended, shocking. They look cool and they can mete out a lot of damage by frying things. In that respect, Lightning is similar to Fire. They're the two most striking elements of all, hands down.

That is incredibly impressive, Lorax. The one problem is a large percent of those profiles are no longer being played. Still, I'd imagine the percentages are similar. Makes me sad I have a Toa of Fire.

I'd guess the reason for so few Turaga is that not only are they rare- a matoran would have to find a stone and then fulfill their destiny within the past 100+ years- but they are also not powerful and bad at fighting. Even more frail than matoran, even.

I find it interesting that crystal seems to be fairly present, despite it being non-cannon. Is it because people like shiny things?

This is because crystal is one of (possibly the only?) pre-approved custom elements. It's BZPRPG canon.

*enters the fray*So, I hear there is currently an unfortunate dearth of Turaga PCs. By happenstance, I've been working on just such a character for over a month now. Might I add an Ice Turaga to the mix come next season?

After I missed so much RPing over the last few months, I took a good look through the profile topic to check what (if anything) had changed. I got to thinking, how many PCs are there in here (lots ) and who are they? Anyway, I counted them all up in types, looked at the numbers, and thought the results might be worth sharing.

Just as a clarifying note, I ddi not count profiles that were clearly made without even a cursory look at the game and rules. Characters like Glatorain, dual-element toa, somehow-sentient bohrok etc. I did count dead/disregarded characters. I did not count NPCs, dead or otherwise.

In total, there were 1,082 PCs.

By species:

Toa 663 61.28%

Matoran 234 21.63%

Vortixx 69 6.38%

Skakdi 65 6.01%

Turaga 8 0.74%

Custom 49 4.53%

Total 1082

Toa by element:

Fire 102 15.38%

Lightning 64 9.65%

Iron 63 9.50%

Air 54 8.14%

Ice 52 7.84%

Sonics 41 6.18%

Stone 40 6.03%

Magnetism 37 5.58%

Plantlife 36 5.43%

Water 36 5.43%

Plasma 34 5.13%

Gravity 32 4.83%

Earth 31 4.68%

Crystal 22 3.32%

Custom/None 18 2.71%

Shadow 1 0.15%

Matoran by element:

Water 57 24.36%

Fire 37 15.81%

Air 33 14.10%

Ice 24 10.26%

Earth 23 9.83%

Stone 16 6.84%

Iron 13 5.56%

Plasma 10 4.27%

Sonics 7 2.99%

Lightning 6 2.56%

Gravity 5 2.14%

Plantlife 2 0.85%

Crystal 1 0.43%

Magnetism 0 0.00%

Custom/None 0 0.00%

It should be noted here that 30 Jaliax sisters skewed this one a bit.

Skakdi by element:

Gravity 10 15.38%

Fire 7 10.77%

Plasma 7 10.77%

Ice 6 9.23%

Earth 5 7.69%

Stone 5 7.69%

Iron 5 7.69%

Lightning 4 6.15%

Plantlife 4 6.15%

Water 2 3.08%

Air 2 3.08%

Sonics 2 3.08%

Crystal 2 3.08%

Magnetism 2 3.08%

Custom/None 2 3.08%

So yeah, consider it a Mata Nui census of sorts. I'm not sure that anyone else will be interested at all, but here it is.

I strongly advise you NOT to get into that Lightning vs. Magnetism argument again, we've had quite enough of that during the Pala-Koro battle and it does not need to be revived. Seriously.

Also, thank you Lorax, I had no idea Rhow and Iraanus were the only Skakdi of water in the game!

Hm? Sounds like something interesting happened. And what's a Pala-Koro? I can't wait for the Wiki to be fully up-to-date...then I might have a basic grasp of some of the more interesting things.

A Pala-Koro is a place of death and destruction, of betrayals and anger. It was once a prime example of how strong a player-made faction could be.....but it became a symbol for how heavy it is when one falls.

Also since I appear to have a life now I'd just like to tell everyone that I'm leaving forever not to be expected to respond as often as I once did, but of course anyone interacting with me is probably accustomed to my current Scarce Posting regime so this is pointless but I just like to talk to people because I don't talk enough on here anymore and I just don't know what to do with myself and and and and